PROCEEDINGS OF THE 23RD ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2020
Boston, Massachusetts
Measuring the effectiveness of social justice pedagogy on K-8 preservice teachers
Page: 142
This study examines ways in which preservice teachers use mathematics in a social justice context. This study examines preservice teachers’ conceptions of teaching mathematics using a social justice lens. Situated at a large, public, predominantly white institution in the southeast United States, where preservice teachers are not required to take a course on teaching diverse populations, participants were asked to respond to questions surrounding their experience with a mathematical social justice activity adapted from Gutstein (2005). Using the preservice teachers’ responses from pre- and post-surveys, researchers were able to compare initial conceptions of teaching for social justice to understandings after an activity involving social justice topics of world wealth and population disparity. Preliminary results show that preservice teachers’ attitudes shifted from naive/general notions of teaching mathematics for social justice to somewhat more concrete ideas.